Monument to Murder (37 page)

The idea for this book was mine but many people have contributed along the way – all of them deserve a loud round of applause. First and foremost, my brilliant agent at AM Heath, Oli Munson; my Pan Macmillan editor, the one and only Wayne Brookes; my wise and wonderful copy editor, Anne O’Brien; and last but not least, my publicist, Philippa McEwan, who looks after me so well.

Thanks must also go to the unsung heroes, especially editorial assistant Louise Buckley, who will be married before this book hits the shops – congratulations, Louise! Also to everyone in the art department for producing the cover, the sales and marketing team who work extremely hard on my behalf, and the booksellers and readers who have supported me since day one.

Were it not for my very own ‘close protection team’ I would not be a writer. So thanks to my family for putting up with my other self, the one who slopes off for days on end to play with words: Paul, Chris, Kate, Caroline, Max, Frances and Mo – you are all simply amazing.

Read on for a look at Mari Hannah’s next Kate Daniels thriller

KILLING FOR KEEPS

On sale 6/2/15 from Witness Impulse

Two brothers from the same criminal family die within hours of each other, five miles apart; one on the edge of a Newcastle industrial estate, the other in the busy emergency room of a local hospital. Both victims have suffered horrific injuries.

Who wanted them dead? And will they kill again? Investigating these brutal and bloody killings leads detective Kate Daniels to break some rules, putting her career as well as her life on the line.

As the body count rises in the worst torture case Northumbria Police has ever seen, the focus of the investigation widens to Glasgow and beyond to Europe, ending in a shocking confrontation with a dangerous offender hell-bent on revenge.

D
AVID
P
RENTICE HAD
been a security guard for over twenty-five years, nearly half his life. He’d worked on the Silverlink Industrial Estate the last ten. In all that time there had never been a single incident on his watch. Nights were a pain, but he wasn’t complaining. His line of work was, more or less, money for old rope. A piece of piss, in fact, allowing him time to study digital photography with the OU.

What was not to like?

Lifting his head from his prospectus, he took a long drag on his cigarette, rechecking his monitors. Perfect. Nothing to suggest he’d have to make the boring journey round the perimeter fence at five, no unusual sightings to report in the logbook. It was still. Quiet. He yawned. He’d be home and hosed by six-fifteen. Except . . .

Something wasn’t quite right.

Prentice peered again at the monitors. The last one he looked at showed a van straddling the main gate. It wasn’t there before. Pushing buttons on a keyboard, Prentice zoomed in on the vehicle, its driver’s door wide open – no sign of its owner. The van was parked on the access road, so technically not his problem, but it soon would be if the idiot who’d left it there didn’t get it shifted. Half an hour from now, delivery wagons were scheduled to arrive. Prentice imagined them backed up all the way to the coast road, waiting to get in.

Panicking, he rewound the footage.

A short while ago, he’d eaten his bait and taken a quick slash. He’d been out of his chair only a matter of minutes. In that time,
two sets of headlights had approached the main gate at high speed: the mystery van and a light-coloured Range Rover following close behind. Prentice began to sweat as he viewed the screen. The two vehicles pulled up sharply. The van door flew open and a figure sprinted from one vehicle to the other. Before the door of the four-by-four was even closed, it was driven away at high speed, resulting in rear-wheel spin. It disappeared, leaving a plume of smoke in its wake.

What the hell was all that about?

Pulling on his uniform jacket, Prentice picked up his torch and went to investigate. As he walked to the exit, it occurred to him that what he’d seen might have been a diversionary tactic, a ruse to make him take his eye off the ball. The guy he’d seen running from the van and his accomplice could be parked around the back, ready to ram-raid the place. To be on the safe side, he returned to his office, rechecking his monitors, paying particular attention to the perimeter fence.

Satisfied that there was nothing untoward at the rear, he made his way outside. As he hurried towards the main gate, a distance of around a hundred metres, his eyes nervously scanned the delivery yard. It was a beautifully clear morning. Not yet light. Eerily quiet. No sign of anyone, suspicious or otherwise. His breathing slowed, returning to normal. Probably some daft kids messing around in a stolen vehicle. They had little discipline these days and fewer boundaries. What the parents were up to was anyone’s guess.

Digging inside his pocket, Prentice took out his master key, then thought better of it and put it back, deciding to remain on site, call the police and set the monkey on their backs, as his late wife used to say.

They’re paid a damn sight more than you.

Mrs P was right – they were.

Intent on getting away home on the dot of six, Prentice looked up, the flap-flap of the company flag above drawing his attention. The only other sound was the soft purr from the van’s engine as he neared the main gate. Switching on his torch, he aimed it at the open driver’s door. The vehicle was a newish Mercedes. Along the side panel, a sign spelled out a company name: HARDY’S ROOFERS. Beneath it, a website address and contact details were picked out in bold black lettering.

As he fumbled in his pocket for his mobile, Prentice decided it would be quicker and easier to contact the company direct rather than calling the law. The police would no doubt insist on a forensic examination and all sorts of other bollocks before the vehicle could be moved, leaving him stuck on site till lunchtime. Not to mention the shit he’d be in with his boss if he arrived to find the entrance blocked off.

The number rang out unanswered. He scanned the van again, moving the torch-beam to the rear wheels where something glistened, thick and shiny like oil, dripping on to the road below, pooling beneath the vehicle.

Oh Jesus!

Prentice ran.

I
T HAD BEEN
a hell of a night in the A & E department of the Royal Victoria Infirmary. Since midnight there had been a steady stream of walking wounded, as well as emergency admissions brought in by ambulance, some with blue lights flashing and sirens screaming, the
whole works. At last count, a hundred-plus cases had been booked in: heart attacks, strokes, a small child rushed in with meningitis, casualties from multiple RTAs. Bursting at the seams, the department had coped – but only just. Then it all went quiet.

Totally spent, Senior House Officer Valerie Armstrong glanced around the waiting room, sipping cold tea she’d been given half an hour ago, relieved to have survived the general mayhem in the run-up to the August bank holiday weekend. Apart from one confused old man who’d just taken a seat, there wasn’t another punter in sight. The place looked as if it had been burgled: wheelchairs abandoned at the door, chairs tipped over, food wrappers and polystyrene cups discarded everywhere, a baby’s nappy dumped on the floor next to, of all things, an empty vodka bottle. She couldn’t remember a night like it.

Behind a thick glass screen to her left, the department’s twenty-year-old temporary receptionist looked done in. Louise was leaning on the counter, head propped up in the palm of her right hand, ID clipped to the pocket of a tight-fitting white shirt, a pretty silver chain around her neck.

Stifling a yawn, she took in the clock on the wall.

‘What time you due to knock off?’ she asked.

Valerie checked her watch. ‘’Bout an hour and a half,’ she said. ‘I’m ready to crash.’

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed an unattended patient lying on a trolley in the corridor, just his head showing above the covers. To be fair to Louise, he was only partially visible from where she was sitting. But still . . .

The SHO pointed at the trolley. ‘Whose patient?’

The girl shrugged. ‘Maybe Dr Suri’s . . . or Dr Templeton’s.’

She was blatantly guessing.

Valerie didn’t think much to either suggestion. Both doctors were long gone. She’d passed them in the corridor as she came back in after collecting her breakfast from her car. On call since midday, they’d had their coats on and were on the way out of the building.

‘No,’ she said. ‘They’ve gone off duty.’

‘Roger’s then?’
Another guess.

A staff nurse appeared, a manila folder under her arm, calling out to the old man. As the two shuffled off behind a brightly coloured curtain, Valerie glanced at a box on the wall where patient records were kept for those awaiting treatment. Curiously, it was empty. Her eyes shifted from the box to the man on the trolley, then back to Louise.

She tried not to sound cross. ‘Any idea how long he’s been waiting?’

‘I’m sorry, no.’ Louise looked worried.

Valerie attempted a smile of reassurance.

If in doubt, ask the patient.

She set off to do just that. But as she drew closer, her steps faltered, an inexplicable feeling of dread eating its way into her subconscious. Seized by panic, she stopped short of the trolley and glanced nervously over her shoulder at reception. Louise barely acknowledged her. Valerie’s gaze shifted back to the patient. Steeling herself, she stepped forward, placed index and middle fingers on his neck. His skin was cold to the touch. No pulse. No need to call for the crash team. He was as dead as a stone.

D
AWN WAS BREAKING
as Detective Chief Inspector Kate Daniels’ Audi Q5 sped off the coast road en route to Silverlink Industrial Estate, Detective Sergeant Hank Gormley by her side. She was strangely apprehensive. Word from the control room had reached her only half an hour ago. The incident she was rushing towards was serious. As duty Senior Investigating Officer in Northumbria Police’s Murder Investigation Team, that was a given. However, something in the controller’s voice had raised her antennae, putting her on high alert for a case outside of the norm.

‘Sounds nasty,’ yawned Hank. He was barely awake.

‘Maybe the eyewitness got it wrong.’ Indicating left off the roundabout, Kate stopped at a red light, glancing at him as they waited to move off again. ‘You know what they’re like sometimes. In the dark they see things that aren’t there. Panic sets in and we get half a story.’

‘Maybe,’ Hank said hopefully.

The lights changed to green. Kate floored the accelerator, keen to reach her destination. But as she rounded the corner, she was met with a sight that forced her to slam on the brakes, bringing the vehicle to an abrupt halt that nearly put them both through the windscreen.

‘Or maybe not,’ she said drily, her eyes glued to the road ahead.

The crime scene was bigger than either of them could have imagined. Blue lights flashed at either end of an access road empty of civilians but crawling with police personnel. Traffic officers had blocked off the grey strip of tarmac for as far as the eye could see. Arc lights were being erected and forensic officers in white suits were walking the line, placing tread plates every metre or so, a process that was ongoing.

Without another word passing between them, Kate and Hank got out of the car, ducking under crime-scene tape that warned others not to cross. As they neared a grey Mercedes van – the focus of everyone’s attention – they saw Home Office pathologist Tim Stanton on his knees in full forensic kit, the hood of which was pulled tight around his head to ensure no contamination of evidence.

He looked up, a pained expression on his face.

From where Kate was standing, it was impossible to tell what he’d been looking at. But his eyes held a warning:
This is not something either of you want to see.
Receiving his unspoken message, Kate sent Hank to find the witness who had called the incident in. Only after he’d disappeared did she step forward, all the while hoping that her imagination was conjuring up worse images than she was about to view.

She was wrong.

Her heart rate increased as her tired eyes travelled down the side of the van to a place near the rear offside wheel. Despite the urge to look away, she knew she couldn’t. No matter how gruesome a spectacle, she was paid to investigate murder. She couldn’t afford to buckle. Still, she found it hard to make sense of what her eyes were transmitting to her brain, even harder to quell the silent scream inside her.

Suspended from the underside of the roofer’s van was the naked torso of a white male – or what was left of it – a mangled mess of bloody flesh, missing limbs, a gaping jaw . . .

What is that? Bone? Teeth?

Don’t look into his eyes.

Suddenly cold, Kate pulled up the collar of her coat. Doing up her top button was the only distraction available. She was calm on
the outside, but traumatized on the in. Hank arrived at her side, his attention immediately focused on the victim. He tried his best to make out he wasn’t moved by what he saw, but failed miserably. In fact, he seemed to shrink physically the longer he stared. When finally he glanced up, his eyes were dull with shock.

‘The witness is pretty shaken up.’ He swallowed hard. ‘Can’t say I blame him, now I’ve seen it for myself. He’ll be having nightmares for weeks.’

‘We all will,’ Stanton said.

Kate mimed to Hank:
You OK?
Concern she wouldn’t voice in the presence of the pathologist.

Hank nodded. The detectives would debrief later.

‘Who found him?’ she asked.

‘David Prentice, security guard at this place.’ Hank thumbed over his shoulder to the premises behind them, a two-storey warehouse in need of a paint job. ‘Apparently the estate is like a racetrack some nights. He wondered if joyriders had hit a pedestrian and carried on driving, not realizing there was someone underneath.’

‘If he’s under the impression that this is a tragic accident, he couldn’t be more wrong.’ Stanton didn’t look up. ‘The IP’s body is secured to the chassis with a thick leather belt. See, here . . .’ He beckoned the DCI with his index finger.

Kate crouched down as he pointed at a section of the torso that remained intact. Outrage and sadness competed for space in her head. What kind of despicable act of madness was this?

‘Can you make it out?’ Stanton’s tone was impassive. ‘The belt is looped in such a way as to make it impossible that this was anything other than deliberate. Judging by the trauma inflicted, the vehicle must’ve been travelling at terrific speed. The buckle is almost embedded in his stomach. There’s no doubt whatsoever that we’re
dealing with a murder case. Forensics are trying to locate the rest of him – if they can scrape him off the tarmac.’

Kate had no words.

Stanton’s tone softened as they both stood up. ‘I’m so sorry you had to see this.’

Thanking him, she turned away, taking Hank with her. The road was lit up like a busy airport runway. They walked the route the van had travelled. Every few metres or so they saw pieces of the victim ground into the road surface: an ear, teeth, a section of scalp and bits of unidentified bone.

Halfway along, yellow chalk circles had been drawn on the road. Kate called out to one of the crime-scene investigators, asking what they were.

‘Improvised plates,’ he told her. ‘We ran out. They’ll guide you the rest of the way.’

Nodding, she walked on.

‘You OK?’ Hank asked.

‘I’ve been better. You?’

Trying hard not to react to the revolting detritus on the road, even though it was affecting her deeply, Kate registered the absence of gallows humour from Hank this morning. No jokey routine to get him through the horror. There were times when it wasn’t appropriate, and this was one of them. He was as disturbed as she was. No question. An hour ago, they had been in their respective homes, fast asleep, oblivious to the brutality taking place on this deserted stretch of road. Now they were viewing a scene so gruesome it would never leave them, illuminated by the volley of camera shutters and flashbulbs going off on all sides.

Kate took a deep breath. Their job was never pleasant. They had attended some nasty pile-ups and collisions in their time – including
a particularly harrowing incident a couple of years ago on the A1 trunk road – but this was something else. It was deliberate.

It was sick.

A traffic officer approached wearing a fluorescent jacket, his eyes partially shaded by the peak of his cap. Introducing himself as the senior accident investigator, he asked Kate if she was the duty SIO. She nodded, giving her name and rank, presenting Hank as her second in command.

‘You’ve done a great job,’ she said. ‘What’s your take on this lot?’

‘It stops, or should I say starts, adjacent to Halfords.’ He pointed along the road. ‘Looks like they stripped him, tied him on to the Mercedes, got in and floored the accelerator. The van did a reciprocal round the mini-roundabout – probably what killed him – then it travelled west at high speed along the main road here, round the roundabout at the top and back down again, turning sharp right, dumping the van where it is now. The victim never stood a chance.’

Kate’s jaw bunched. ‘According to the control room there was a second vehicle involved.’

‘Yes, ma’am.’

‘I want it found. Any sign of his clothes?’

‘Not yet, but the CSI lads are on it.’

‘That’s good. Keep me posted.’

In the distance, Kate saw motorists abandoning their cars to stare in her direction. To the left of the roadblock a group of pedestrians stood behind flapping tape, craning their necks to see what was going on, probably crowing because they couldn’t get to work. They would be demanding to know when the diversion would be lifted, resentful at being held back by officers as clueless about it as they were.

The DCI sighed. With forensic evidence spread over such a wide
area, the site would remain closed for some time. Hundreds were employed on the industrial estate, and soon there would be delivery vehicles and shoppers adding to the congestion. ‘I can almost hear the complaints pinging their way into my inbox already.’ She grimaced. ‘There’ll be a million calls to handle: enquiries from the press, local MPs, headquarters – all wanting answers we don’t have.’

‘Yet,’ Hank reminded her. ‘But you’re right, this’ll end up feeling like we’re working in a circus instead of a major incident room.’

Kate was exhausted just thinking about the day ahead. ‘Well, they’ll all have to wait. We have other priorities.’

A mobile rang.

They both went for their pockets.

It was Kate’s. The screen showed
Pete Brooks
. She swiped to answer. ‘Go ahead, Control.’

‘Looks like we found your second vehicle, boss.’ Brooks hesitated, checking details. ‘CCTV picked up a Range Rover heading west along the coast road towards the city centre shortly after leaving Silverlink. It was found abandoned and on fire off Walker Road in the East End five minutes ago.’

‘Damn!’ Kate’s shoulders dropped. ‘The victim’s clothing was probably inside. Are Forensics at the scene?’

‘They just got there.’ The controller paused as someone spoke to him at the other end. After a few seconds, he came back on the line. ‘The fire is out, but don’t hold your breath for a positive result. Forensics say it’s going to take a while for the vehicle to cool down, then it’ll be a question of seeing whether there’s anything left to examine.’

‘Problem?’ Hank asked as Kate thanked Control and hung up.

‘The Range Rover – it’s been torched.’

He narrowed his eyes. ‘What did you expect?’

Frustrated by the development, she looked away, her eyes finding the warehouse entrance. Something about her crime scene didn’t quite add up. It was always difficult at such an early stage of an enquiry to second-guess what was going on. She expressed her reservations in a question to Hank. ‘Why dump the Merc in full view of CCTV rather than on a piece of wasteland? God knows there are plenty of those scattered around the city.’

She didn’t expect an answer. Didn’t get one either. They both knew there was only one plausible explanation. Whoever was responsible didn’t just want their victim to suffer. They wanted him dead. And they wanted him found.